If one hears bad music, it is one's duty to drown it in conversation.
 Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). copy citation

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Author Oscar Wilde
Source The Picture of Dorian Gray
Topic conversation music
Date 1890
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/174/174-h/174-h.htm

Context

“The same nervous staccato laugh broke from her thin lips, and her fingers began to play with a long tortoise-shell paper-knife. Dorian smiled and shook his head: "I am afraid I don't think so, Lady Henry. I never talk during music—at least, during good music. If one hears bad music, it is one's duty to drown it in conversation." "Ah! that is one of Harry's views, isn't it, Mr. Gray? I always hear Harry's views from his friends. It is the only way I get to know of them. But you must not think I don't like good music. I adore it, but I am afraid of it.” source